Ten facts about health in the WHO European Region

In the WHO European Region, 49 people are diagnosed with and 7 die from tuberculosis (TB) every hour. Of the 27 countries that account for 85% of all multidrug-resistant TB cases globally, 15 are in the European Region.

In eastern Europe and central Asia, only 23% of people with HIV have access to antiretroviral treatment: this rate is one the lowest in the world.

Noncommunicable diseases account for about 85% of deaths in the Region, with cardiovascular diseases and cancer being the main causes.

The Region has the highest burden of alcohol-related disease in the world: 6.5% of all deaths in the Region (11% for males and 1.8% for females) are due to alcohol.

The proportion of the population aged 65 years or older is projected to increase from 15% in 2000 to 23.5% by 2030. The proportion of those aged 80 years or over is expected to more than double, from 3% in 2000 to 6.4% in 2030.

A leading cause of preventable death, tobacco kills about 1.6 million people in the Region every year. Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer.

As to road traffic accidents, 70% of deaths on the Region’s roads occur in poorer countries and 40% are among pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists.

One in five Europeans is regularly exposed to noise levels at night that could significantly damage health.

Each year, nearly 1 million children born in the Region are not fully immunized. Some of the lowest rates of vaccination coverage are found in western Europe, where 76% of measles cases in the Region were reported in 2008–2009.

Owing to intensive interventions, the number of reported malaria cases in the WHO European Region has fallen more than 150-fold since 1995.